The News
In the weeks since Kamala Harris took over from Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, one question has loomed over her campaign: How online is too online?
Harris’ team has had an impressive start, quickly dominating the media conversation by leaning into memes and social media trends set to songs like Charli XCX’s “Brat” and Chappell Roan’s “Feminomenon.” One of her rallies featured a DJ playing a dance remix of a viral clip where she recounts her mom telling her she didn’t just “fall out a coconut tree” — now the unofficial symbol of her campaign.
The Kamala Harris TikTok account gained two million followers within 24 hours; the meme-heavy, rapid-response KamalaHQ account, renamed from BidenHQ, doubled its following in the day after the rebrand, according to numbers the Harris social team shared with Semafor.
In the early going, Democrats — especially younger ones — have seemed head-over-heels with the candidate’s fresh, lighthearted approach to securing the most important job in the world. Some early polling seemed to confirm the growth in enthusiasm, with one survey finding younger Americans feel less “meh” about voting in key swing states.
“It sent an immediate signal that, essentially, everyone is welcome to participate in what is somewhere between a campaign and a movement,” pollster and MSNBC commentator John Della Volpe told Semafor. “It seemed like social media was right there with her. [Young people] want to be part of it from the ground floor.”
But some critics worry that these efforts to build social media buzz risks becoming cringe, like Hillary Clinton declaring “Pokémon Go to the polls!” in 2016, or distract from reaching the median voter, who is significantly older and less plugged in.
In that vein, a recent press release that included a screenshot of a meme from popular X account Dril quickly made the rounds among users, but struck some internet-savvy commentators as a bridge too far. It also set the stage for Dril to respond with a reference to the administration’s support for Israel’s military operations, a topic that’s been especially difficult for the White House to navigate online.
“The old adage is ‘you can’t force a meme’ and I think that’s still very true,” tech journalist Ryan Broderick told Semafor in a message. “When it’s natural and organic it works super well. Brat summer just felt totally right. But that’s tough to sustain without feeling forced.”
For pollster Della Volpe, there’s no such thing as “too online.”
“Using social media is as necessary today as using the radio was for FDR,” he said. But it’s still unclear whether it’ll translate to votes, Della Volpe added.
“She’s not where she needs to be with the younger people,” he said. “This isn’t about sustaining it. It’s about growing it. She needs to grow it.”
The View From The Harris Campaign
Harris’ team is going full steam ahead on its social media strategy, and being “too online” seems like a risk they’re willing to take in order to break through to younger voters.
The media is fragmented and people increasingly get their news from social networks, a Harris campaign spokesperson told Semafor. The campaign has “to show up and meet voters where they are.”
The team has more than 175 staffers who do grassroots fundraising, “digital persuasion and mobilization,” and creative work across the Kamala Harris and KamalaHQ accounts, while also building relationships with creators and influencers inside and outside of politics, according to the spokesperson. They have a Gen Z rapid response team driving daily content, reacting to trends and key moments in real time.
The social team’s “North Star” goals have not changed since Biden bowed out, nor has their strategy, the spokesperson said. Harris has just clicked with the audience, and the content has started flowing organically from supporters. It may be because she’s younger, Della Volpe said, and can more comfortably share “passions” with younger people than Biden. She may also just be a better fit for social, personality-wise.
Biden, by contrast, came from a “different generation,” Della Volpe said. “And that really, I think, impacted his ability to maintain a relationship with the young voters over four years.”
“The signal that [Harris’] social media is sending is that you can be a joyful warrior,” he added. “Politics doesn’t always have to be stressful. Politics doesn’t always have to be hard and anxiety driven. There can be joy in this process, right?”
Digital messaging is not just about vibes, it’s also about money. The campaign has made “historic investments” in its digital strategy, the spokesperson said. It’s also been outspending on ads across most social platforms compared to other political groups, and employing Gen Z-friendly fundraising tactics, like selling the viral “Harris-Walz” camo cap and reportedly amassing $1 million in a day.
The View From An online media analyst
For Jasmine Enberg, vice president and principal analyst at research firm eMarketer, the battle for votes won’t be fought or won on social media — especially not TikTok, which doesn’t allow targeted political advertising.
Rather, political ad dollars are going more to streaming and CTV than in the past, in part because of its “wide youth audience and more precise targeting techniques,” Enberg said. “Social media, too, but to a lesser extent. It’s more about transferring that energy and excitement she generated on social and making that part of a more holistic strategy.”
“She can’t ride the meme wave all the way to the White House,” she added. “There’s always a risk of over-saturation or missing the mark on social media. Trends move fast and mistakes can annoy or alienate even the people who love her ‘Feminomenon’ and ‘Brat’ content today.”
Room for Disagreement
For some, the Harris campaign doesn’t risk being “too online” — it already is. The recent press release may have crossed the line by taking the memes out of where they belong — the internet.
“This is...flying a bit too close to the sun for me,” The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel wrote on X, just two weeks after giving a positive analysis of the way the Harris campaign had been harnessing online attention.
Notable
- “Memes are, by nature, like weeds — growing best when uncultivated,” journalist Katie Notopoulos wrote in Business Insider. “If the Harris campaign wants to let this internet goodwill keep flowing, it should be very cautious not to overwater the seeds.”
- YouTube commentator Jules Terpak argued the newly online-oriented campaign approach fits Harris’s personality. Compared to Biden, she is perhaps more “clippable.”
- “I just love Gen Z. I know it may be complicated if you have Gen Z in your family, but I think they’re terrific... When Gen Z starts voting in their numbers, a whole lot of this is going to have an absolute sea change in terms of leadership,” Harris reportedly said at a fundraising event in San Francisco.